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<p>If you were a mesomorph before, you should have gained muscle more easily than fat, since that is the usual description of a mesomorph.</p>
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<p>That appears similar to Willett’s approach – low carb vs. low fat etc. is not as important as the quality of various foods. The low carb dieter snacking on fried pork rinds and the low fat dieter snacking on fat free cookies are not doing themselves any favors.</p>
<p>6.5 miles with new shoes. I should have broken them in - not on a run. I thought that they were going to break me in but they felt comfortable after a mile. The new pair (cross-trainers) has even more support than the previous pair. I realized that there’s only one more pair of cross-trainers left in the closet so I’m taking a trip down to the New Balance Factory Outlet this week to pick up some running shoes, tennis shoes and cross-trainers - whatever I can find. I would like to use a pair of running shoes for the 5K in August.</p>
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<p>It’s hard to gain muscle when you don’t exercise for decades. Smoking progressively robbed me of my ability to exercise. I don’t think I was a naturally chubby endomorph because I went many years consuming mass quantities of fattening food (soda, candy, chips, etc.) and not getting much exercise without putting on a lot of weight. Plus, I honestly don’t think an endomorph would have lost the weight I’ve lost as “easily” as I’ve lost it over the past 16 months, especially with an apparent thyroid headwind. I think it’s fair to say that I lose weight pretty easily if I get my diet in check. I mean, I’ve barely even hit a plateau. That was my experience the one previous time I lost weight – I lost it quickly and easily with no exercise whatsoever. I just failed to close the deal by adapting a permanently “fit” lifestyle/mindset.</p>
<p>Back to the gym today. 45 minutes on the bike doing intervals, 20 on the dreadmill and then pushups and weight machines. Knee still stiff and swollen but I only have 60 days until D1’s wedding!!! H joined me at the gym but not for the whole time. He wants to lose some weight now that the deadline is looking. We shall see. Making grilled chicken breasts and roasted veggies for dinner! Can hardly wait!!!</p>
<p>Whoa Nellie. That was a challenging workout. I had a sneaking suspicion that four sets of these core exercises would be tough. Sure enough, by the fourth set, I was dripping sweat on the yoga mat while doing the pushups with diagonal knee drives. The elevated hip lift/thrust I told MOWC about yesterday is a fantastic exercise. Mike Boyle has pitched this one, too. I don’t know why I’ve never tried it before.</p>
<p>Valslide reverse lunges were interesting. It took me a few reps to get going and bend the back leg so it wasn’t a big ol’ painful straight legged split, but by the second set, they were almost fun. This seriously removes any chance of help from the back leg. It’s all front leg.</p>
<p>I will probably dump the med ball out of this workout because the whole thing ran a little long at 69 minutes.</p>
<p>Just got back from the grocery store. I was in the whole grains section with a company called Bob’s Red Mill products - five shelves worth of grains and meal in plastic bags - lots of flours, some soups, some baking mixes, some seeds.</p>
<p>The most interesting things were flaxseed meal (fat 4.5, carbs 4, protein 3, fiber 4), chia seeds (5, 6, 3, 5), soy flour (6, 8, 10, 3), wheat gluten flour (0, 0, 19, 0), and hemp seeds (6, 3, 5, 2). My wife said that we have flaxseed already so I’m going to try it - making pancakes I think. I bought the chia seeds. Wife said that soy flour is bitter so I didn’t buy it but I may buy it in the future. Hemp seeds are $15.99 a pound. So I’m going to mix the flaxseed meal and chia seeds with eggs and try to make pancakes or something. Should be interesting.</p>
<p>BCEagle–you might try almond meal also. My D gave me some (don’t know where she got her big bag of it) and I found recipes online. We loved the muffins with almond meal, flaxseed meal, wheat germ, eggs, & dried fruit. The only sweetener was a little molasses. Don’t know how to calculate it but they must have been high in protein & low in carbs or at least high in complex carbs.</p>
<p>On nuts, I generally prefer just to eat the nuts. I do have mixed nuts from time to time and they include Almonds. My wife stocks them in the freezer too. My favorite nut is the pistachio and I like sunflower seeds after that.</p>
<p>Bob’s Red Mill also carries Almond meal and it has excellent nutritional characteristics (14, 6, 6, 3).</p>
<p>What’s the low carb/paleo view on quinoa?
I love rice, pasta, potatoes, bread, etc. but am heavily reducing/eliminating them for now. I also really like quinoa, am I hoping in vain that it is a far superior choice?</p>
<p>25 carbs/serving, but on the glycemic index it’s 53, which puts it at “low.” </p>
<p>It’s high in fiber which means you can’t scarf it down like you would bread/pasta.</p>
<p>So enjoy!</p>
<p>TJ sells almond meal. I almost bought a bag, but then decided that I prefer my nuts crunchy. :)</p>
<p>Done with my mileage for the night. I earned my dinner: 200 calories worth of chicken burger from Costco (delicious!), 200 calories in crusty bread, and a glass of milk. Beet salad and 1/2 glass of red wine for dessert will follow. Somewhere between the end of April and now I lost 2 pounds. As my baby sister used to say, “A skinny cow will never look like a gazelle”. I need to eat.</p>
<p>I’m out of pistachios and sunflower seeds so I grabbed the almonds from the freezer in my nut snack container. Hopefully I’ll have time to drop into Trader Joes to replenish my nuts.</p>
<p>I cooked three eggs with chia seeds and flaxseed meal this morning. I think that I could have made pancakes with seeds or I could have asked my wife to do this but I wanted something quick. I’m thinking of doing nothing today except for the weight machines but I may pack my running stuff to do some speed work instead. I feel surprisingly good after the long (for me) run yesterday.</p>
<p>I have flaxseed meal at home that I have made pancakes with previously. They are actually quite good. I also have recently purchased oat bran to try and make the “Dukan” oat bran galette. </p>
<p>arabrab, the flank steak recipe sounds very good. I think I will do that Sunday for Father’s Day. BB, how do you make your beet salad? I love roast beets - that is one thing I will not live without.</p>
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I think this is me. I remember trying to do a low carb diet after my second pregnancy, during which I gained a lot of weight, and it pretty much made me crazy.</p>
<p>Okay, I have almond meal in my freezer - to make macarons with. Does this mean macarons are now healthy? :D</p>
<p>Yes, it does. It was really nice finding flours, meals and seeds to make bread-like products that are high in protein, and fiber and low in carbs. BTW, I finished the eggs. The flaxseed meal had not flavor/taste that I could discern. The chia seeds gave the eggs a slightly nutty, crunchy feel. This does give me another option for getting in enough fiber in a low-carb way. Apparently my wife has a bunch of grains in the freezer. She pitches me with ideas of healthy grains - most of the time I tell her that I’m not interested and she wonders why as it’s the opposite of what she has heard.</p>
<p>I was munching on almonds getting quite full and wondering why as it’s the same volume as my pistachio nuts. Then it struck me: the shells!</p>
<p>I’m tempted to do a long run today as everything feels very good after yesterday’s run. I’d like to play tennis tonight too. Might send out an email to see if anyone wants to hit and do both.</p>
<p>Really need to stop running on a treadmill next to someone half my age! 
Oh well, it’s good motivation – that and my upcoming HS reunion in less than 2 weeks. I skipped the last 2, but have reconnected with a bunch of folks via Facebook. Should be interesting.</p>
<p>NM, every time I’m on an exercise bike I think of you. Yesterday I did 30 minutes and thought I was something – until I read that you did 40 mins!!! I find it pretty boring – or maybe it was worse yesterday because the TVs I could see had stupid stuff like “Charmed” on them.</p>
<p>idad, a picture for you: Li Na (French Open Women’s Champion 2011) working out with a medicine ball doing a lunge. The equipment backdrop is spartan. </p>
<p><a href=“http://ww2.sinaimg.cn/large/68160971tw1di6q6mqc3lj.jpg[/url]”>http://ww2.sinaimg.cn/large/68160971tw1di6q6mqc3lj.jpg</a></p>
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<p>Could be. Although, in fairness, post-pregnancy may not offer a tightly-controlled experimental baseline!</p>
<p>I listened to an terrific new podcast interview last night with Dr. Steven Phinney. MD (Stanford), PhD (MIT) who has done some of the early low-carb research, especially in the area of low-carb and athletic performance (he’s a cyclist), and is the one of the co-authors of the new Atkins book.</p>
<p>Podcast can be found here:
[The</a> Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show With Jimmy Moore](<a href=“http://llvlcshow.libsyn.com/479-dr-steve-phinney-a-low-carb-legend-with-a-brand-new-book]The”>http://llvlcshow.libsyn.com/479-dr-steve-phinney-a-low-carb-legend-with-a-brand-new-book)</p>
<p>Or, in iTunes:
[The</a> Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show With Jimmy Moore - Download free podcast episodes by Jimmy Moore on iTunes.](<a href=“http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-livin-la-vida-low-carb/id324601605]The”>http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-livin-la-vida-low-carb/id324601605)</p>
<p>The interview was jam packed with interesting stuff, but one section described Dr. Phinney’s first low-carb study as a medical resident back in the 1970s and how it led him to career researching this stuff. At the time, several studies had just been published showing a severe (40%) decline in athletic performance (treadmill endurance testing) two weeks after going on a very low-carb ketogenic diet (like 20 g of carbs per day). He set out to duplicate and confirm these findings, only with one change. He contintued to monitor the performance on ultra low carb for six weeks. He found exactly the same 40% decline in cardio endurance at the two week mark, but – much to his surprise – found that the decline was gone at six weeks of ultra low-carb and performance was back to normal.</p>
<p>What is now understood is that, on an extremely low carb diet (like Atkins induction phase) the body will initially resist the loss of its primary fuel source (carbohydrates) by increasing hunger demands and dialing back metabolism. However, it will then adapt and switch to fat burning as a primary fuel source (remember, the high consumption of carbohydrates elevates blood sugar, stimulates frequent insulin production, and tends to lock fat away in storage ratther than burn it). Once the body has gone through this low-carb adaptation and begun burning stored fat as a fuel athletic endurance returns.</p>
<p>More iinterestingly from a diet perspective, it is this reprogramming to use stored fat as a prefered energy source in the absence of constant carbohydrate supply that explains the fat loss many of us have seen on carb restricted diets and the somewhat surprising lack of hunger (after the intitial adjustment) despite being in a calorie deficit. That has been the shocker for me. I’ve now been averaging under 2000 calories a day for 16 months and it’s not taking any particular “willpower” to keep from eating more. I track my calories, so that factors into decision to grab the candy in the checkout line or not, but it’s not like I’m “starving” for a snack. I don’t feel like I’m dieting.</p>
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